Clearly says Longhorn XP professional, why make that distinction if there isn't going to be a home edition?

And to be honest those screen shots are not impressive. I call them Windows XP Aqua. I am ready for something new already, something radical. I don't know why MS just doesn't release a radical UI for those of us that are experimental and say "here use it at your own risk", and I don't meant mean a different color theme.

British, I haven't installed it, so I haven't a clue. In a pre release state though, I doesn't suprise me that a system service could use that much RAM. I remember the early betas of .NET Framework 1.0. The ASP.NET worker process could use insane amounts of memory. Between it and VisualStudio .NET a 1G RAM wasn't difficult.

sphbecker, if the user interface hasn't changed much since Windows 95, why would 2 or 3 more years make a difference? Maybe Microsoft is just going in the wrong direction with user interface for some people's taste. I would prefer no themes or "pretty stuff" (on the professional version) and just functionality. If I want pretty I will buy a Mac or the "home" version (if there is one.)

I don't think Longhorn's purpose is to change the interface much. I think it is mainly for the underlying file system change. They have throw in a little visual change in there just for eye candy.

This post was edited by Lord British on Wednesday, March 05, 2003 at 16:53.

sphbecker, I wasn't wishing that they get rid of it in the professional version, just default it to a standard "visual style" or theme or whatever they are that I turn off :) I didn't mind the gradient title bars in Win2k but the gradient and border on the menu highlight in Longhorn is starting to get to be a bit much. I thought the quick launch bar was great in windows 98 but they turn it off by default in XP and the new bar is too much. I don't know how they should change the UI but it should be more functional than nice to look at. If it is both, then we both win.

See that part about limiting your kiddies internet time? Why would that appear in the Pro version if they wanted to sell the Home version with that functionality? It doesn't make sense to me for them to do that when they could just say "there is only one Longhorn version" and make everyone pay the same price. No more $100 difference in cost (everyone pays the higher price.) If Image30 were in the Home version, I'd agree, but it's in the Pro version, and it uses that specific language making me think that Longhorn is the "end all and be all" for the XP-like OS.

Plus it just makes plain ol' sense to have one code version to worry about supporting...

But that's my opinion, at any rate.

This post was edited by Cthulhu on Wednesday, March 05, 2003 at 18:03.

cth, hmm, i hadn't thought of that. It was my understanding that home was a subset of Pro, so if home has it, pro has it too. If that logic is correct, that would seem to deflate your reasoning. I suppose we'll have to wait a bit and see what happens.

#24 and 25 on the flip side why have parental control in the business version?

Also regarding the UI I am not saying to do away with the current version but my god can't someone at MS put out a more radical "option". Some of us are tired of the Win95 look (and no we don't want new themes). I can't believe that MS can't provide an add-in/visual pack/image engine for those us that want something else.

This Win95 visual style can't be the end can it? Where is MS research when you need them? probably making a new version of "clear type"

Yes. The higher levels of the NT line have always been supersets of the lower levels.
Just as the Pro version of XP has Games, Movie Maker, Simple Networking, etc., plus features not included in XP Home, Longhorn Pro can have Parental Controls. The codebase is still common with the exception of the added extras for the Pro and Server versions.

I forget who mentioned it -- PT, NeoWin, whoever -- but isn't there going to be an add/remove area specifically for Tablet PC, Media Center, etc... PCs in the OS...? Don't know how they plan to charge for the "pieces" But that's what I had heard.

"Finally, do any of you idiots know what cleartype is? it is a font rendering feature that doubles the width of pixels to make them easier to view on TFT screens. THIS FEATURE SHOULD NOT BE USED ON CRT MONITORS AS IT DOES NOTHING TO IMPROVE FONT QUALITY! read it and repeat it. The whole port of cleatype is improving readability on TFT screens which can be linked to the development of the original idea of the tablet PC."

Yes, we do. Who cares if it's only for LCDs? It's complete crap anyway, it's not limited to just LCDs, it is in fact touted as a generalized font-smoothing technology, it is used (no matter what type of display you use) to smooth fonts sometimes but most of the NOT because it does suck, sub-pixel rendering is a joke anyway--I see the colors! They blend and phase and distract... What a wonderful idea--the fonts are slightly smoother but a rainbow of color is emanating from every bit of text... Whipppeee!

With the amount of cynicism in here, you'd think that this were a Mac forum. If it looks like XP with a new skin, well... it is. That's how nearly every OS starts out. To not understand that is to miss the point of alpha builds. Microsoft is testing ideas and the final build will likely end up being quite different.

I also have clear type turned on and I like, everything is so crisp and clear (no pun intended).

When I mentioned clear type (#26) I meant it in a joking manner as the sum total of Microsoft Research. Even for XP I still think that there should be some GUI offered to those of us that are tired of looking at Win95.

And thank you matgarnz for calling us idiots and yes we are aware of what cleartype is.